2 Responses to Psychogenic Discombobulation Field device

All too true – and borne out when I’ve interviewed climate change academics and got to my favourite bit ‘ How do you feel about all this?’ Most seem genuinely surprised by the question, and most again dont seem to connect the reasonable reaction – sheer fear – to the data they present. A necessary function of objective research?

The risk of ‘contamination’ – that emotions betray, mislead etc while you are “doing science” carries over into what you think/feel about the implications of the work. I suppose we saw it best with the so-called nuclear strategists, who seemed to compete for who could keep the most dispassionate voice while talking about millions of crispy corpses (‘megadeaths’). I suppose talking about how distressing it all is puts your ‘brand’ (and future career progression/opportunity to do more of the science you love) under threat. So you keep those feelings far under wraps? Any scientists lurking want to comment (anonymously if needs be?!)